BORIS Johnson today revealed he will vote AGAINST Rishi Sunak's new Northern Ireland Brexit deal.
In a major snub to his successor, the ex-PM will join the Democratic Unionist Party and a handful of hardline Brexiteers opposing the Windsor Framework in the Commons this afternoon.
In a statement ahead of his partygate grilling later today, Boris slammed the deal as "unacceptable".
He said: "The proposed arrangements would mean either that Northern Ireland remained captured by the EU legal order – and was increasingly divergent from the rest of the UK – or they would mean that the whole of the UK was unable properly to diverge and take advantage of Brexit.
"That is not acceptable. I will be voting against the proposed arrangements today."
Mr Sunak was hailed by MPs from all wings of his party when he unveiled the long-awaited Windsor Framework last month.
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The PM and EU boss Ursula von der Leyen agreed on the historic deal to end the so-called “sausage wars” that saw two years of border chaos over goods and trade.
Goods will now freely flow into the province from the mainland unrestricted, with Northern Ireland brought back under Westminster’s tax and VAT regime.
But Euro judges will still have SOME say over trade rules in the province.
Boris insisted that instead of giving caving to the EU, Mr Sunak should've stuck to the old Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would've allowed Westminster to override the EU in the province.
"The best course of action is to proceed with Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, and make sure that we take back control," he said.
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On Monday the PM was dealt his first major blow when unionist MPs announced they'll “unanimously” reject the Windsor Framework.
Mr Sunak had been courting DUP leader Sir Jeffery Donaldson, with some in No10 hoping he could be convinced to abstain in Wednesday’s crunch vote.
But this week he said while the Windsor Framework represented "significant progress" in addressing concerns with the Northern Ireland Protocol, it does not deal with some of the "fundamental problems at the heart of our current difficulties".
Yesterday a further blow was dealt when Eurosceptics MPs in the European Research Group branded a crucial element of Mr Sunak's Brexit deal as “practically useless”.
The ERG still hasn't decided to vote unanimously in any particular direction.
The group is split between MPs loyal to Mr Sunak and those who hate the deal.
They're due to meet this morning ahead of the Commons vote to make a decision on whether to whip members.
If Tory MPs do rebel, it's expected to be in numbers ranging from 10 – 30.
But the deal will pass through Parliament either way because Sir Keir Starmer ordered Labour to vote with the government.
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The number of Tory MPs that follow Boris will indicate how tight a grip Mr Sunak has over his famously restless party.
It will also show how much loyalty Boris still has amongst his biggest backers.
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